1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to combinatorial exchanges and, more particularly, to a method of conducting a dynamic combinatorial exchange, and computer instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform one or more steps of the method.
2. Description of Related Art
Various systems have been proposed and constructed to support online exchanges. The most general type of exchange is a pure exchange which permits one or more bidders to offer to sell and/or purchase one or more items to/from one or more bid takers. An item may be any entity of value, such as a good, service or money. A forward auction is a special case of an exchange with a single seller. A reverse auction is a special case of an exchange with a single buyer.
Combinatorial exchanges support advanced exchange designs and expressive bidding. These features permit the exchange to be designed to achieve best economic efficiency.
One example of expressive bidding is combinatorial bids. Combinatorial bids allow bidders to bid on multiple items with a single bid. The combination, or bundle of items, is determined by the bidder. This is advantageous when the items exhibit complementarity, i.e., when the value of the bundle of items is worth more to the bidder than the sum of the separate item values, or substitutability, i.e., where different items are interchangeable to the bidder. Combinatorial bids allow bidders to express their true preference, resulting in the best economic allocation.
Heretofore, multiple round exchanges were sometimes conducted in an attempt to find a desirable allocation of the bids input into the exchange at any time before or during the course of the exchange event. When determining the allocation in each round of the exchange event, all the available rules were applied. One problem with utilizing all the available rules to determine the allocation in each round of the exchange event is that all of the rules may result in an infeasible allocation or an allocation that does not satisfy a desired exchange objective.
What is, therefore, needed and not disclosed in the prior art is a method for conducting a dynamic combinatorial exchange that overcomes the above problem and others.